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obfervations on the bite of ferpents are fenfible and judicious, and very ufeful to any person that may visit countries in which fuch nox ous re tiles abound. There are fome very curious accounts of the maladies of women, and the modes of treatment; but thefe, as we cannot quote, we must refer readers defirous of inveftigating fuch fubjects to the work itself.

The medical part of the volumes before us, is far beyond the topographical, and much farther beyond the political. The phyfician d fcribes the Gonorrhoea, and the yaws, much better than the character of the Afr cans, or the reafonings against the flave trade; and perhaps this is not the only inftance that proves, that every doctor is not neceffarily a politician; let fuch doctors as are not, keep to their own profeffion.

Travels from Hamburg, through Weftphalia, Holland, and the Netherlands, to Paris. By Thomas Holcroft. 4to. 2 vols. PP. 1052: Plates, 51. 5s. or, with the plates separate, 81. 8s. Phillips. 1804. N his preface, Mr. Holcroft informs us, that Paris and its inhabitants, with their customs, habits, and manners, conftitute the principal fubject of his enquiries in these volumes; and, indeed, all the other topics which he introduces may properly be deemed incidental, if not digreffive. What he means, however, when, speaking of the Parifians, he talks of the hot enterprize of their character," we proffs our inability to conceive; but we agree with him in lamenting, that they thould be continually in the power of those who obtain political rule," and that " their energies," such as they are, should be fo woefully mifdirected and mifapplied, by every fucceffive tyrant. To" pourtray the influence of moral habits" on any people, is certainly a work of utility; but to trace that influence on the inhabitants of republican France, was a task of equal importance and difficulty. How far it has been ably performed by Mr. H. we shall endeavour to fhew.

Our traveller left Hamburg, with his wife and two children, early in the year 1801, and proceeded through Weftphalia and Holland, chiefly in the public carriages, to Paris. His ftay at the different places through which he palled was fo thort, as to admit of little obfervation, and none of a fatisfactory nature. But this cannot be confidered as a defect, in a publication written with another profeffed object in view. Some few of the facts which he details are, nevertheless, worthy of notice. Previous to his departure from Hamburg, he had given the neceffary notice for quitting his lodgings; but as this notice was only verbal, and not written, his landlord took advantage of it to demand an additional month's rent, although he had, in confequence of the notice, let the apartments to another perfon. The mode of proceeding, in this cafe, was fummary indeed!" Pay the money, Sir; or the foldiers fhall be called, and your effects feized. The power, in a free city, allowed to private individuals to enforce

NO. LXXI. VOL. XVIH.

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an unjust demand by the bayonet, is a folecifm in political economy, well calculated to excite both aftonishment and difguft. There was no poffibility of refifting fuch a power; and Mr. H. was reduced to the neceflity of fubmitting to a compromife, and to pay forty ma ks more than were due. 'Tis highly proper that travellers fhould be acquainted with facts like this.

On every occafion, Mr. H. indulges his propenfity to philofophize; and, were we required to characterise his travels, we fhould call them a Philofophizing Tour. It was not difficult for a mind so predisposed to find fuch an occafion at Groningen. Accordingly, Mr. H. thus philofophizes on his arrival at Groningen.

"Are we in the land of metaphyfics; or of moral philofophy; or where? We ought to be at Groningen-fober Groningen-where the people appear to have a deal of common fenfe. Be it remarked, however, that here, in fober Groningen, we met with the first tree of liberty.

We were happy to find, that the act of planting a tree of moral liberty was deemed by our traveller a departure from common sense. But to proceed:

"What warring fenfations did the fight of it infpire! What is a revolution? And what has this revolution effected? The mafs of evil, and the mass of good, put in oppofite fcales-which fhall preponderate? I folemnly declare, in the face of mankind, my heart aches with a fenfe of paft miferies, though I ardently hope, nay, am seriously convinced, the good prevails.”

There is certainly not much common fenfe in this declaration; and we should have been really glad to hear on what this ferious conviction of our traveller's was founded. How, in a revolution begun in the name of liberty; atchieved by crimes, without number, as without a name; and ending in the establishment of a military defpotifm, under which the life and liberty of every individual is at the abfolute difpofal of the defpot: How, in fuch a revolution, it could be made to appear that the good prevails, exceeds, we confefs, our powers of comprehenfion. Mr. H. however, profeffes to deplore the multitudes which have been facrificed by the perpetration of thefe crimes, but ftill more deeply to deplore the prolongation of that want and mifery which have refulted from them; and "the fiery paffions," and factious ftruggles to which they have given birth.

On the church-door at Groningen appeared the following infcription, in the Dutch and French languages: "Here men worship God. Citizen, whoever thou art, refpect this worship." This admonition evidently implies, that the refpect fo enforced had been violated: and fuch was, no doubt, the cafe, as our author pertinently remarks here, that "the men who unfheathed the fword in defence of freedom" (or, as we fhould fay, under the pretext of defending freedom) "ftabbed freedom to the heart by the use of force: her gentle bleflings cannot be propagated by the fword. Alas! I forget too that this propofition is the fubject of hot difpute. I really with to conciliate; but the times are fo full of contention, and of doubt, that

a man

a man can scarcely venture to fpeak without a great probability to offend." The man who fpeaks truth generally offends, and Mr. H. might have recollected the French adage, "Il n'y a que la verité qui offenfe;" but the writer, whofe aim is to inftruct mankind, fhould not fuffer the fear of offending to deter him from fpeaking the truth; and, indeed, no public writer fhould allow any confideration whatever to induce him to deviate from the truth. The conftant motto of fuch men fhould be, NE QUID FALSI DICERE AUDEAT, NE QUID VERI

NON AUDEAT.

During his stay at Amfterdam, Mr. H. heard the following anecdote, which exhibits a fingular inftance of French ingenuity:

"A Frenchman went to a rich Jew, and told him he wished to exchange a number of dollars for louis d'ors, which he was under the neceffity of immediately procuring. The Jew, after bargaining to his own advantage, confented, and promifed the gold fhould be ready the following day. At the appointed hour, the Frenchman came with his bags; which, having holes in the fides and near the top, fuffered fome dollars to be feen. The gold being counted and weighed, he prefented an empty bag, in which it was put.

"Juft at this moment, when the dollars were to be examined, a friend entered in great hafte, and called him away on urgent butinefs. However, he left not only the bag fuppofed to contain the gold, but alo the bag fupposed to contain the dollars; and faid he would return in two hours to fee' them counted; defiring, in the mean time, they might be locked in the Jew's bureau.

"The two hours elapfed, and the Frenchman did not make his appearance; but the Jew thought himself fafe. He was unwilling to unlock the bureau, till the Frenchman fhould be prefent. At length, another hour having glided away, he began to fay to himfelf: " Is it poffible that I can have been cheated?" The very queftion was alarming to any man, and efpecially to a money-changer. The firft anxiety of the Jew led him to the fuppofed bag of gold: this he untied, and discovered that the bag containing the gold had been exchanged for one which was full of leaden counters. He fcarcely needed to have enquired [to enquire] further: however, he opened the bag of tilver, and found himlelf equally deceived.

"He haftened to go and acquaint the police; but, when he came to an outward door that led to his apartment, it was locked and bolted. The Frenchmen had poft-horfes prepared, and had inftantly taken flight; but, when they were at a certain diftance, they were guilty of fome imprudent delay; and, after the Jew had obtained his relcafe, the vigilance of the purfuit was fo great, that the Frenchman, against whom the Jew had deposed, was taken.

"During his imprisonment at Amfterdam, his behaviour and abilities were equally remarkable. By the aid of burned turf and ftraw, he drew the fiege of Mantua on the walls, and Bonaparte (Buonaparté) on horfeback, heading the French armies. While the executioner was whipping him, he fpoke of the magiftrates in the most contemptuous terms. "What," faid he, "is my crime, compared to theirs? I have but cheated a Jew; a vile fellow, who has become rich by cheating; while the wretches who condemn me to this ignominious punishment, have betrayed and hold their

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cou..try."

country." He was afterwards branded; and, at the moment of inflicting the mark, he cried aloud, Vive la Republique!"

It must be allowed, that this man was a worthy republican, and every way qualified for a distinguished command in Buonaparte's legion of honour! Our traveller having enquired the cause of the mournful appearance of the city of Amfterdam, and of the evident decay of trade there, was informed, that they proceeded from the depredations committed by the French, the confequent ruin of individuals, and general bad effects; which leads him into his usual strain of philofophizing, or rather, philofophifticating. After expreffing, or rather hinting, fome doubts as to the truth of the reafons alledged by his informant, he fays-" The fubject is painful: the evils are committed the good remains: let every wife man, whatever may be his opinions or his par y, endeavour to render that which is good permament; and, by mildnefs of fpeech and humanity in action, alleviate the bad, and prevent the return of mifery.", We cannot but confider this as the miferable whine of that fpuri us philanthropy, which is fo much in vogue in the present times. It behoved him to fhew what good remained, accruing from the accurfed revolution which abolished all exifting institutions, and urned fociety topfy turvy. It behoved him alfo, before he talked of the return of mifery, to fhew that mifery had ceased to exift; but the very reverse of this he knew to be the fact his own fenfes convinced him of the continued existence of mifery; the pe fons of whom he fought information affured him of it. To ufe fuch language, then, under fuch circumstances, is to fubftitute puerile declamation for fenfe and truth, and to infult the common fenfe of his readers!

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Mr. Holcroft's no ions of toleration are as extraordinary as his notions of revolutionary goed. "The word toleration," he tells us, Fought to fignify an unlimited freedom to every man, of living not undisturbed in but without being reproached for, the opinions he may entert in. Falfe opinions ought to be reafoned with, not perfecuted. It has been proudly, perhaps not improperly, answered, to those who fay we will grant toleration, If you pretend to tolerate us, we pretend to tolerate you."

It is of very little confequence what toleration ought, in the eftimation of Mr. H. to fignify. The queftion is, what it does fignify; and the fact is, that what he wishes to maintain, is not the toleration of all fees or opinions, but the equality of all. To reafon only with opinions, cpenly promulgated, and acted upon, which are highlymifchievous in corrupting the principles of the rifing generation, or injurious to the peace and good order of fociety, would favour more of the mad philanthropist, than of the true philofopher. Such opinions deferve not only reproach, but punishment; and, be it obferved, that reafon and repreach are not incompatible with each other, though Mr. H. feems to have pronounced a fentence of divorce between them. But we will purfue his fophiftry a little farther.

"Could

"Could any man demonstrate to another that his opinions are erroneous, he muft neceffarily renounce them." If this were true, there would be no atheists; for it is no difficult matter to demonstrate to an atheist the existence of a God. But by demonftration, we fuppose the author means conviction; and then his inference appears to be this, that if you cannot convince a man that he is wrong, however erroneous, however mifchievous, however deftructive, his opinions may be, however oppofed to reafon, truth, and fripture, he ought not to be reproached for them, for reproach is perfecution!!!—“ An individual has a strong conviction that the Catholic (Roman) religion is pernicious to mankind. This opinion is fo forcible, that it irritates and gives him pain. But will an opinion authorife him to perfecute and destroy the Catholic priefts of France, who are of a different opinion?"-No, certainly; nor the Catholic priests of England, Ireland, or of any other country. But can this ingenious philofophift find' no medium between encouragement and deftruction? And, becau'e we ought not to perfecute or deftroy perfons profeffing erroneous or dangerous opinions, does it follow that we ought not to reproach them for the promulgation of them? "In Amfterdam," he adds, "all religious fects are allowed places of religious worship, except Pagans and Mahometans. The exception is a difgrace." So, if a fet of miscreants chufe to worship the devil, and to erect an altar to him in every town in the kingdom, it would be a difgrace to the government to prevent them from indulging in their impious orgies! This is toleration with a vengeance! And we need nothing more to convince us, that, in the eyes of our author, all religious establishments are fcandalous abuses, and the deftruction of them a ferious good! But we will not reproach him for his opinions, left we fhould fubject ourfelves to the charge of perfecution.

The difficulty which our traveller experienced in Holland, in obtaining a passport for Paris, notwithstanding his letters of recommendation to the French minifter at the Hague, draws from him some expreffions of ill-humour, which extend to his own country.

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Englishmen, among whom egrefs and regrefs had been a common right"-He feems to be ignorant that the king could always, by his prerogative, limit or controul this common right, as he calls it. Englifhmen, who used to pity, and almost despise, the flaves that could not pass without their borders, without a written permiffion." We do not precifely know who thefe flaves were; for certainly, before the revolution, Frenchmen could and did leave their country, without a written permiffion, in time of peace, or unlefs they were in the army or navy." Englishmen now found their path cribbed and circumfcribed, like the limits of a Pruffian recruit. The time at last came, when they themselves confented to be manacled. Free of fpeech, liberal in their oppofition, and difdainful of fear, as they had been, fufpicion fuddenly feized them; and, perfuaded that they were furrounded by danger, they confented to measures, which they had formerly affirmed none but tyrants could imagine, and none but flaves could endure."

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